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Friday, April 08, 2016

OK, my damies. How's this for my last hot take before I hit my hiatus?:

I was not a fan of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

Sure, that title game was must see TV. With arguably the most entertaining closing sequence in championship history. And yes, I was more than mildly entertained by the unexpecTed run of my beloved Syracuse Orange. But outside of those 2 things (and that Syracuse "run" was really only 2 games. Thanks to Dayton and Middle Tennessee opting to remain on their respective buses), this tournament was more or less a total dud...

Yeah, I'm sorry. But not nearly enough of this year's games were actually worth watching. GranTed, the bar was set mighty high. But no higher than usual. In fact, I'd argue that the bar was even lower this year, because nobody had any realistic expectations as to what might go down. You know, because one-and-done parity and no truly dominant/experienced teams etc? Yeah, well because of all that, many were even predicting that we'd have even more close games than usual. But no. We got mostly blowouts. Or at least an increase in games that weren't what we've come to expect in terms of competitiveness...

And I'll even do you one better! That extremely entertaining championship game? Sure, those teams were very good. And both were totally worthy of cutting down the nets. But they're not legendary and/or particularly interesting teams. So it's kinda hard for them to have played in really all that legendary of a game...

Take the Syracuse title in '03, for instance. GranTed, I'll take some heat for making this comparison, and should probably use that epic Memphis/Kansas clash in '08 to prove my point. But walk with me. That Syracuse team had the country's best freshmen (player?), and improbably beat basically every team in that season's best won, oh by the way, in fantastically dramatical fashion by way of a last second block by Hakim Warrick, against a team that many had considered that season's best in the Collison/Hinrich led Kansas Jayhawks. That's my long-winded way of saying that, for better or worse, truly great games need to have some sort of worthy narrative leading up to them, and can't merely be defined by one singular moment. That Syracuse/Kansas game, along with many other title games past, had it. This game, did not...
conference (the BIG XII) on their way to the title game. A game they

So, yeah. That's my hot take. And yes, I know. I'm a hater. A hater who struggled to keep his favorite movie list under 100 and is constantly refining it. Yep. I'm a hater. And I'd rather be known as a hater than as someone who spends their life on the fence, getting splinters up their ass. Though Lord knows that would probably make me a LOT more popular on Facebook. Where the insecure illiterati reign supreme!...

I also like The Money Pit...

Now go out and enjoy your Springs and Summers, my damies. I'll be in and out intermittently. But mostly I'll be golfing, and passing my various judgements in relative silence. Then again, there's always Twitter...